title: Introns and intein coding sequence in the ribonucleotide reductase genes of Bacillus subtilis temperate bacteriophage SPbeta.
abstract: The two putative ribonucleotide reductase subunits of the Bacillus subtilis bacteriophage SPbeta are encoded by the bnrdE and bnrdF genes that are highly similar to corresponding host paralogs, located on the opposite replication arm. In contrast to their bacterial counterparts, bnrdE and bnrdF each are interrupted by a group I intron, efficiently removed in vivo by mRNA processing. The bnrdF intron contains an ORF encoding a polypeptide similar to homing endonucleases responsible for intron mobility, whereas the bnrdE intron has no obvious trace of coding sequence. The downstream bnrdE exon harbors an intervening sequence not excised at the level of the primary transcript, which encodes an in-frame polypeptide displaying all the features of an intein. Presently, this is the only intein identified in bacteriophages. In addition, bnrdE provides an example of a group I intron and an intein coding sequence within the same gene.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Microbiennes, Rue César-Roux 19, CH-1005 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lazarevic
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Soldo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Düsterhöft
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hilbert
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mauël
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Karamata
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017103:Bacillus Phages / Q000235:genetics*; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D005814:Genes, Viral; D007438:Introns; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009876:Operon; D019154:Protein Splicing; D012264:Ribonucleotide Reductases / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins; D012264:Ribonucleotide Reductases